The battle to keep the arts on mainstream BBC television is "shocking", one of its star broadcasters has said, as she calls its low priority "stunning".

Clemency Burton-Hill, the Radio 3 presenter, said arts programmes like Young Musician of the Year were condemned to a "vicious, Orwellian circle" of being relegated to digital channels, only for the corporation to then lament their lower audience.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Burton-Hill said: "The fight to keep the arts in some kind of mainstream environment... its stunning.

"It's shocking to me that the BBC - God love them - don't prioritise putting the arts on a more mainstream channel."

Classical music should be for everyone, Burton-Hill arguesCredit: BBC

Burton-Hill, who criticised "snobbery" within the classical music world, has now published a book aimed at convincing the public it can be for everyone, with one piece of music recommended each day.

She said of her selected classical music pieces: "Whoever you are, wherever you come from, and however you got here, they belong to you."

Asked about the prominence given to the arts on the BBC, Burton-Hill used the example of Young Musician of the Year, which she said would reach audience figures of 13 million in its heyday on BBC One.

"The first year I presented it, in 2010, we were over to the moon to get a million and we were still on BBC Two at that point," she said.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing in the Final of BBC Young Musician 2016

"Then there was a decision made to take it to BBC Four, where we of course dropped audience, because of course you do, it's a digital channel."

The broadcaster and author argued that, on the contrary, classical music-lovers should strive to give it the widest audience possible, refuting accusations of elitism.

On the topic of film scores, and whether they were useful in bringing in new audiences to the classical world, she said: "I think the snobbery that surrounds it is indicative of the same snobbery that means people want to keep this music for themselves.

"If you're going to be a socking great film composer, you have to be such a talented musical storyteller.

Clemency Burton-Hill

"I am all for film music being considered on the same plane [as classical music]. Not every single piece of film music is genius, but not every single piece of chamber music is genius either.

"It's that snobbery that says 'oh well if lots of people like it, it cant possibly be good'.

"I really want to erode that because it's simply not true. In no other area would we say 'lots of people like this and therefore it cant be good.

"I mean, there's something wrong with that equation isn't there?"

Burton-Hill's book, Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day, is out now.